But as negotiations continue, major ports aren’t waiting to be approved for federal funding. They’re already engaged in, and/or are planning projects to improve their infrastructures in order to become or remain capable of handling the largest ships bringing consumer goods to the U.S. from Asia. Pacific Maritime Magazine surveyed most of the largest ports on the West Coast about their projects, and here’s what they said. Port of Long Beach In an interview with Pacific Maritime, Port Executive Director Mario Cordero touted two recently completed infrastructure projects that he said have already helped increase productivity and reduce port congestion.…
Port of Alaska officials in Anchorage say they expect construction to be complete and initial operations underway by late fall on the new multi-million-dollar Petroleum and Cement Terminal (PCT). The project, contracted to Seattle firm Pacific Pile and Marine (PPM), is the first phase of the Port of Alaska Modernization Program. The project involves replacement of the Petroleum Oil Lubricants Terminal (POL 1), open since 1965, which is severely corroded and suffered significant structural damage during the magnitude 7.1 earthquake that occurred in the Anchorage area in November, 2018. Port officials said that once the new POL 1 terminal is…
Matt Mullett, owner and CEO of Bellingham Bay, Wash.-based All American Marine, has sold his boat building company to family-owned Bryton Marine Group, a builder of welded aluminum commercial, recreational and adventure boats headquartered in Vernon, British Columbia. All American Marine is expected to continue operating in Bellingham, while Byron Bolton assumes the role of CEO along with Matt Mullett staying aboard in an advisory role. Ron Wille, AAM’s president, will lead the business along with his management team. No changes are expected to AAM’s workforce or 57,000 square foot facility. “We are motivated to start this new chapter by…
The northern and central coasts of California are opening up to commercial scale wind energy projects under a plan announced Tues., May 25 by the Biden Administration. White House officials said the move to catalyze offshore wind energy is part of the president’s commitment to build new American infrastructure and a clean energy future that creates good paying jobs. The Interior Department, in coordination with the Defense Department, has identified the Morro Bay 399 area to support three gigawatts of offshore wind on roughly 399 square miles off of California’s central coast region, northwest of Morro Bay. The two areas…
On the East Asia–North America shipping circuit, three major route options are open for companies moving cargo to America’s busiest cities via the intermodal system of ship, road and rail. These options include sailing to the North American West Coast; sailing through the Suez Canal to the North American East Coast; or sailing to the East Coast via the Panama Canal. A variety of factors influence what choice a maritime company will make: the origin of the cargo and its destination; the type of cargo being shipped; and the state of labor relations in the major gateways are all common…
According to data from the Center for Biological Diversity, thousands of shipping containers have fallen from cargo ships into the ocean since October, 2020. And if that isn’t bad enough, that number of spillages isn’t a global total; it refers to incidents that occurred solely in the Pacific Ocean while containers were being transported between the Asia and the United States. At least six spills since last fall have dumped 3,000 cargo containers into the Pacific Ocean along shipping routes between the U.S. and Asian countries, CBD data show. The largest of these spills was a November 2020 incident in…
Joe Biden rode into the White House on campaign promises of building up climate resiliency, pledges to mitigate decades of transportation inequity, and assurances that his administration would take bold action to build back better with sustainable long-term investments in infrastructure. The nation’s crumbling infrastructure has been a prominent concern and front-burner policy issue for years, but the devastation and disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted a number serious deficiencies crippling our freight and logistics network. With unprecedented demand for imported goods and capacity issues abound, the pandemic effectively uncovered major issues for the maritime and freight logistics industries with…
Who knew a dance floor on a cruise ship could be a dangerous place? Over the years, dance floors on cruise ships have been the sites of many personal injuries. In turn, those injuries gave rise to lawsuits against the cruise lines. Surprisingly, the cruise lines were not always held liable for what happened on the dance floor. Open and Obvious Condition in the Disco Under established federal maritime law, a vessel owner owes only a duty of reasonable care under the circumstances to passengers, not the higher duty of seaworthiness owed by a vessel owner to crewmembers. In Salazar…
The COVID-19 pandemic slowed some aspects of the commercial maritime industry in 2020, particularly in the early months of the coronavirus’ emergence. But less than a year later, much of the industry returned to business as usual. In addition to that degree of normalcy, an unfortunate byproduct of maritime operations has also returned – spills of oil and other substances from commercial vessels. But since COVID hasn’t completely disappeared, responders to such spills have to take an even more measured approach to how they handle such situations. Pacific Maritime spoke with a number of spill response industry professionals about various…
By Karen Robes Meeks Seventy years ago, Jack Appelt used his refrigeration know-how to build a family business that could support the burgeoning demand for refrigeration services in cargo ships, the U.S. Navy and surrounding commercial markets in the Los Angeles Harbor area. Today, the business that Appelt built, Quality Refrigeration, celebrates seven decades as a go-to service company for marine and commercial HVACR systems for cargo ships, cruise lines, offshore oil platforms, industrial and commercial markets. It boasts one of the largest inventories of certified marine parts in stock on the West Coast. The business also remains a family…